U Know Computer

Not too many years ago, before the USB stick came along, if you wanted to clean install Windows, it had to be done using the CD or DVD and an optical drive. Thankfully, things have moved on and users with a sufficient amount of knowhow have been able to get their copy of Windows onto a USB flash drive and install from it for a little while now. With the introduction of Windows 8 you can now even choose to install it using a USB flash drive from within the Microsoft Upgrade Assistant. Installing Windows from USB has some advantages such as not having to worry about scratching or damaging the Windows installation disc, and it’s more convenient to carry around a tiny USB flash drive than optical media. They are also a necessity for netbooks, small laptops and the increasing amount smaller form factor PC’s that no longer use ROM drives. And to add to that, a reasonable speed USB stick can complete a Windows install a good bit quicker than an optical drive thanks to th...

There’s little doubt that Microsoft has been busy over the last few years with the release of Windows 8, and Windows 8.1 about a year later. Since then Windows 8.1 itself has had 2 major updates which could traditionally be called Service Packs, and Microsoft are now working on Windows 10. Yet according to statistics, there remains a Windows operating system that has more users than all other operating systems in the world combined and is still supported by Microsoft. That is of course Windows 7 which was released in 2009. Ridiculously Windows 7 has received only one Service Pack in over five years, and has had no updated install DVDs or ISOs since 2011. If you install Windows 7 these days and then run Windows Update, the list of hotfixes and patches is staggering, and well over 150 before you even get to extras like . NET Framework! If you’re continuing to use Windows 7, with the unending amount of updates to install, what’s the best o...

Anybody who has downloaded games or applications from the internet will often find them coming in the form of an ISO image file. An ISO Image is simply an archived file containing an exact representation of the content from an optical disc and has been a very popular way of storing and distributing discs for some time. If you have no need for a full disc burning application or just want to quickly burn an ISO image, here’s a selection of free to use ISO image burning tools for you to try. They are easy to use and you only have to select the ISO file and click the burn button using the default settings most of the time. 1. Active@ ISO Burner LSoft’s Active@ ISO Burner is a very professional looking tool that can burn ISO and IMG files to just about any type of CD, DVD and Blu-ray media. Simply drop the image onto the window and click Burn. Useful details about the inserted media and the writing drive are shown in the right display. A few extra options are available s...

It doesn’t matter what version of Windows you have, the best way to get your system working at its full speed and as issue free as possible is with a clean install of the operating system. Many small things can go wrong with your system over time which eventually will degrade performance and cause stability issues. Even with Windows 10 it’s recommended to clean install after upgrading so you are not transferring any problems from your old Windows install onto your new one. Although it’s easy to get hold of a Windows 10 ISO image, burn it to DVD or write to USB and do a clean install, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to source official install media for older operating systems like Windows 7. Of course there are many unofficial sources like torrent sites but most of the best seeded files will have been cracked, tampered with or altered in some way, and it’s more difficult to verify safety and stability Using a trusted source is always much more preferable. The bes...